Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-07-01
II AM GLAD TO DIE, BECAUSE l CAN DIE
WITH your

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II AM GLAD TO DIE, BECAUSE l CAN DIE
WITH YOU"
He heard, and such was the power of her
love, that his, which had been put out of
mind in the terror of that hour, reawoke and
took the color of her own. He, too, forgot
the imminence of death in the warm presence
of his down trodden passion. She was in his
arms as he had taken her during the firing,
and he bent his head to look at her. The
moonlight played upon her pallid, quivering
face, and showed that in her eyes which no
man could look upon and turn away from
Once more-yes even then-there came over
him that feeling of utter surrender to the
sweet mastery of her will that had possessed
him in the sitting room of "The Palatial." But
now, all earthly considerations having faded
away, he no longer hesitated, but pressed his
lips against hers and kissed her again and
again. 1t was perhaps as wild and pathetic a
love scene as ever the old moon above has
looked upon. There they were, those two,
experiencing the fullest and acutest joy that
life has to offer in the shadow of death. Nay,
death was present with them; for there, be-
meath their feet, half hidden by the water,
was the stiffenng corpse of the Zulu.
To and fro swung the cart in the rush Of
tue sNOlIcH river, up anu uONn DtSlue Inelu
the carcasses of the horses rose and fell with
the swell of the water, on whose surface the
broken moonbeams played and quivered.
Overhead was the blue, star sown depth
through which they were waiting presently
to pass, and to the right and left the long,
broken outlines of the banks stretched away
till at last they appeared to grow together in
the gloom.
But they needed none of these things: they
remembered nothing except that they had
found each others hearts. and were happy
with wild joy it is not often given us to feel.
The past was forgotten, the future was at
hand, and between the one and the other was
spanned bridge of passion made perfect and
Eanctified by the approaching end Bessie
was forgotten, all things were forgotten i'll
that consuming fire
Let those who would blame them pause
while. Why notl They had kept the faith.
They had denied themselves and run straightly
down the path of duty But the compacts of
life end with life. No man may bargain for
the beyond. Even the marriage service
shrinks from it. And now that hope had
gone and life was at its EXTREMIST ehb, why
should they not take their happiness before
they passed to the land where, perchance, all
things will be forgotten? SO it seemed to
them; if indeed they We're any longer capable
of reason.
He looked into her eyes and she laid her
head upon his heart in that mute abandon
ment of worship which is sometimes to be
met with in this world and is redeemed from
vulgar passion by an indefinable quality OF
its own. He looked into her eyes and was
glad to have lived, ay, even to have reached
this hour of death And she, lost in the
he sO1llpI
passion laden heart upon his breast, and
called him her own, her own, her very own
And SO the long hours passed, till at last G
new born freshness in the air told them that
they were not far from dawn The death
they were waiting for had not yet come. II
must now be very near at hand.
"John," she whispered in his ear, do yot
think that they will shoot usi'
Eyes" he said, hoarsely; "they must fol
their own safety"
II wish it were over" she said.
Suddenly she started back from his arm
with a little cry, causing the cart to rock vic
lently.
~ forgot" she said-"you can swim, though
/ cannot Why cannot you swim to tn
bank and get off under cover of the darkness
1t is not more chan fifty yards, and the cur
rent is not so very swift"
The idea of escaping without jess had ncve
occurred to him. and now that she suGgeste'
it, it struck him as so absurd that he actual
broke into ghost of a laugh.
Don't talk nonsense, jess, ;" he said.
Eyes, yes, | will. Col You must go! !
does not matter about me now. l know yo
love me and l can die happy. | will wait 70
you. oh, John! wherever am, if have an
life and any remembrance, / kill wait 70
bot nj HOu
ever far may seem away, if | live at all,
shall be waiting for you. And now go; yo
shall 60, say! No, will not be disobeyet
If you will not 60 l will throw myself int
the water. Oh, the cart is turning Overt"
"Hold Oh for Gods sake" shouted join
"The traces have broken"
He was right; the tough leather was
length worn through by the constant rul
bling against the rock and the strain an
swaying of the cart on the one side and I'll
dead horses on the other Round it spul
broadside on the current, and immediatel
began to heave over till at last the angle WI
80 sharp that the dead body of poor Mou
slid out with splash and vanished into IL
darkness. This relieved the cart, and
righted for moment, but now no longer he
up by the bodies of the horses, or by the SUI
tanning power of the wind, it began to fl
and sink, and at the same time to revolN
round and round. John realized that it WI
all up, and that to stop in the cart won
only mean certain death, because they wou
be held under water by the canvas tent. )
with devout aspiration for assistance
seized jess round the waist with one arm al
sprang off into the water As he did so Il
cart filled and sank.
"Iie still for Heavens sake" he shouted,
they rose to the surface.
In the dim light of the dawn, which w
now creeping over the earth, he could nal
out the line of the left bank of the Vaal, Il
same from which they had started into h
river on the previous night 1t appeared
be about forty yards away. but the cure